12.57PM, Metropolis

Superman's fists smashed into the android's body again and again, his blows so powerful they propelled it several meters back,leaving ruts in the ground. The irony of the situation didn't escape Superman. Just the other day he had complained that nothing was a challenge anymore. He finished it off with a powerful uppercut, sending the android skyward to Green Lantern, who locked it in a massive safe.

Lantern was sweating.
He didn't think that was possible.
This was the most he had ever been tested in the recent past.
His ring arm trembled slightly.

Diana's arms were covered in angry looking welts. The wounds weren't healing as fast as they should. She suspected there was some low-level magic at play. She and Hawkman had probably engaged the android at close range much more than any of the other heroes.
Hawkman had the most injuries out of all. He suffered several cracked ribs in the course of the battle but he fought on relentlessly,and he accumulated a large number of cuts and mottled bruises across his torso, most of which were healing rapidly even now. He felt oddly responsible for the android, and he took it on himself to fight hardest.

There was a brief respite as the assembled heroes paused to see if their latest strategy would work.

The green construct shattered, throwing Lantern back several feet, bouncing him painfully on the ground.
Hawkman swooped in and smacked the android across the jaw with his mace, folding his wings and falling away as Captain Atom charged with a powerful energy blast that pushed it into a brick wall.
A blur of red and gold came in immediately after, forming a small hurricane that funneled the android up into the air, but it quickly tagged him as he came around on its left and the speedster was knocked into a pile of shattered concrete.

Superman attacked again in tandem with Captain Atom, combining his strength with Atom's energy based abilities in a once successful strategy. Nothing worked twice on the android though, and it quickly blasted Superman in the face with his own heat vision, blinding him for a few seconds, then blasted Captain Atom with concussive energy, pushing him away from it.

"You cannot defeat me."

Captain Atom halted for a second, just a second, but that was all it took. He barely dodged the powerful blast of energy in time. He thought he could overload the android with excess energy, but it was taking everything he had and redirecting it faster than he could give it.
He needed more time, then he was certain he could overload it. He had more power than a dozen nuclear bombs. Nothing was strong enough to take that much juice.

A barrage of missiles from F-16 jets rained down on the android and the jets soared overhead. The military was still attacking.
Lantern put down a protective barrier just before the blast hit them.

"Shit! If that thing doesn't kill us those missiles will!" he said.

"Captain Atom, tell the Military to stand down! They're more likely to listen to you. Tell them their airstrikes are hurting more than they help!" Wonder Woman said.

"And if they refuse?"

"Tell them I'll bring them down myself." Superman said as he emerged from the flames, smouldering but unscathed. His eyes glowed red. He looked thoroughly pissed off.

Atom flew off to do just that.

"The creature.. It spoke." Wonder Woman said.

"I heard it too. Maybe we can try reasoning with it." Superman added.

"You really think that'll work?" asked Lantern skeptically.

"It will buy us some time at least. Notice it's stopped attacking us." Hawkman said as he landed beside them. He was bleeding from several scrapes on his torso, but the cauterized wounds on his chest had completely healed.

"Because we stopped attacking it? I don't think it's that easy." said Black Canary.

"Maybe it is." Superman said. As hero of Metropolis he felt it was his responsibility to play peacemaker.

He flew over to the android cautiously. It didn't attack. So far so good.

Now to ask a question that answered every question.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"I am A.M.A.Z.O. And I want what my father wants, to destroy you Superman."

"Your father? Who is your father?" He asked as Wonder Woman and Black Canary circled the android from the back.

In reply his head did a complete 360.

"That is so disgusting." Canary said as she ducked to the side, dodging the red eye beams.

Wonder Woman charged forward, shield raised to deflect the beams, thrusting her sword into the creatures chest, searching for a heart or some vital organ.
So far only her swords and Hawkman's axe were the only things that could pierce the android's shell, but it repaired the damage in seconds.
It swatted her aside, knocking her shield away, but she held her ground, unsheathed the other sword and stabbed it in the groin as she ripped the other sword upwards to its belly. The android faltered slightly. Diana sensed a change in the tide of battle.

"Everyone! Hit him with all you have, now!"

Lantern constructed a .50 cal and began firing thousands of rounds into the back of Amazo's head.

Hawkman hacked at the creature's chest with savage fury.

Canary loosed her hypersonic cry straight at the androids face.

Superman hammered away at its stomach together with Captain Atom, who had decided to forgo his energy blasts in favor of brute force.

Wonder Woman continued hacking and stabbing, determined to cut through the shell entirely no matter how quickly it kept repairing itself.

Flash opened his eyes slowly.

Everything hurt.

His ears were ringing. But he could already feel his body healing itself rose on unsteady feet.

It looked like the latest plan was working.
For now.
He had only joined the fight a little over an hour ago, but so far everything they did it countered. The longest they had held their advantage with a new strategy was maybe 40 minutes, and then the android adapted to their style. Their times reduced gradually. Their last moment of advantage had barely lasted half that time.

It seemed to be replicating their abilities.

But it did have some weaknesses. He noticed it could only use one ability at a time, and that it could only replicate the abilities of a person within a certain radius of its optics. He also noticed that it hadn't replicated Lantern's ability, which made sense, and Captain Atom's, which didn't.
He wasn't sure if it had copied Wonder Woman's abilities, but it didn't look like it. It had copied his speed, and it was yet to copy Canary's cry, but it was certainly going to do that now. It's shell healed itself rapidly, faster than even he did. This needed science. Maybe S.T.A.R Labs would have an answer. Only one way to find out.

S.T.A.R Labs

This was the easiest smash and grab he had ever had.

Hopefully it was the only smash and grab he would ever have.

Everyone from the security personnel to the janitors to the scientists were glued to the television screens, watching the battle in the city-centre. He was looking for something. He didn't know what, but he would know when he found it. He opened the skylight and looked in.

Camera's.

Everywhere.

He didn't want any evidence of his presence here. He took out a small oval device from his belt buckle and pushed a button, then he placed it back on his waist. It was a signal jammer that was good for about 50 feet. It would distort the voltage,frequency and transmission of electronic devices. He had developed it specifically for 'small scale' electronics such as camera's and handheld communication devices.

After that little episode with his photo on the news, it was one of the first things he had tasked Lucius Fox with manufacturing.

He paused for a few more minutes to make sure there was no one on the floor below, then he fired his grapnel and swung into the room. He rolled with the fall and used the momentum to spring upwards into a full sprint. He covered the distance in a few seconds, then concealed himself behind the door of a lab as it was opened suddenly. Two men in lab coats came out.

"..we'll watch it in the break room. I keep telling them to replace this TV. It's ancient. Maybe now they'll listen to me." Thankfully they opened the door of the room directly across from them without looking back. No time to be relieved. Deciding it was probably a safe bet that the room they had vacated was empty, he decided to start there.

Flash sprinted through the corridor as fast as he dared.
Fast enough that he wouldn't register on the camera's, but slow enough that he wouldn't shatter windows with his passing.

He didn't want that attention.

He zoomed through the first few rooms.

Empty.

Empty.

Empty.

Supply closet.

Batman.

Cafeteria.

Empty.

Wait, what?!

He circled back and sprinted double time back to the 5th room.

He opened the door gingerly and peeped inside.

He was hit with a face full of gas.

He retreated, much slower than usual. Whatever it was affecting him somehow. Something heavy landed on his chest. He could see two lenses glowing white like little fluorescent bulbs. The gas was cloying. It made his eyes water,his lungs burn and his mind foggy. It was like chloroform, tear gas and pepper spray combined. But he could feel it purging from his system already.

"Who are you?." asked a deep gravelly voice.

"Flash." He wheezed. Spots danced before his eyes.

Batman weighed his options.

He certainly looked like Flash.
And he had observed his work.

He was good at his job. Efficient,minimal collateral damage, in and out in a few short minutes, and he didn't like media attention. He was also here, which meant that he was looking for something. That indicated some measure of intelligence and perhaps detective skills. He raised himself off of his chest and placed a small capsule inside one of the bags at his belt.

"Batman. It's an honor to meet you. I knew you had to be real."

"Likewise Flash. Do you mind explaining what you're doing here?"

Flash went on to tell him everything, including his observations.

"Excellent work. Great minds think alike Flash. What you've just described sounds like nanotechnology, and S.T.A.R Labs happens to have something that can help us in that department. But I'll need you to distract the guards once the alarm goes off."

"Alarm?... Uh, why will there be an alarm going off?"

"Well, we can't exactly ask for what we need. We don't have time to explain it to them, and they most likely won't believe he we have the best of intentions. If one of us was a JLA member they might have agreed, but not a rogue hero and a vigilante. All you have to do is keep them busy. Take this, its a communicator. Once I give the word, you can move out."

"...Ok."

Batman ran off down the corridor and turned right. After a few minutes a siren started blaring and the lights turned red.

Flash sprinted in the opposite direction to where the majority of the guards were stationed. He was alternately excited and terrified.

It didn't take him too long to find it among the other items in the observatory. It was a lot bigger than the photos. It probably weighed a good 100 pounds.

He had benched more weight in his teens, this wouldn't be a problem. He placed 4 timed explosives on the weak points of the display case, then he jumped over the counter and wrapped himself in his cloak. There was a loud explosion and the glass that was several inches thick shattered like frost. He could only hope it wasn't damaged.

The plane appeared above as summoned, hovering over the glass ceiling. He threw up a single adhesive timed bomb and ducked as the shattered glass came raining down. He gripped the disruptor in one arm and fired his grapnel with the other, reeling himself up into the jet.

"Now." He said to Flash as his plane took off, headed towards the heart of the conflict. Below him a red gold streak raced ahead, like a GPS plotting out a course.

Superman heard the jet engines first. But they sounded different. Quieter. Smoother. Yet more powerful. He couldn't risk turning his head, not when they had the advantage. There was no time. If a missile hit, his impenetrable hide would protect him. Hopefully the rest would be fine.

Wonder Woman heard the jet and she saw it too from her position. A sleek black plane, unlike any she had ever seen before. Right away she knew it wasn't a military plain. It just looked too different. She could see someone inside. But all of this was just a cursory glance before she sliced through the android's left arm. It reattached itself as soon as her sword had slipped through.

Green Lantern was the only one in a position to keep up his attack and watch the approaching plane. He had flown every type of craft from helicopters and rocket propelled planes to stealth fighters and commercial private jets. He had never seen anything like this before. It looked like a Blackhawk, only smaller and sleeker. He was extremely jealous of whoever got to fly that on a regular basis.

"What the hell is that?!"

Flash appeared on the ground before them.

"That, is Batman. The Batman."

"No way! Batman's real?"

"I told you. You owe me 500 bucks."

"Whoa, 500? Did I really-"

"Lantern, now is not the time! It is already adapting! Circle around it! Whoever this Batman is, it appears he is here to help."

Wonder Woman said as she deflected the heat vision with her bracers. She made a mental note to say a prayer of thanks to Hephaestus. She would have been burned multiple times today were it not for his trusty metalwork.

In the jet, Batman surveyed the battle-scene. He needed a place to get a good shot. He also needed the android to be absolutely still or else the weapon might not work.

"Flash, tell them to hold the android in place. This won't work as well if I don't have a perfect shot."

"You're going to shoot it? From where?"

His eyes scanned the battlefield.
There was no place that afforded that perfect combination of concealed cover, a perfect angle and unobstructed view.

Fuck it.

"I'm going to shoot it from on top of the plane."

"Seriously? Can you even make the shot?"

"I have to."

"Guys, Batman says to hold it down!"

"Who says what now?"
Superman asked as his fists blitzed the android's torso with incredible force, leaving dents in its surface but not quite hurting it.

"Wait... He says hold it in place! Not down, in place!"

"Well what does he want us to do that for?" Captain Atom said as he blasted pure heat energy from his fists at the android's back.

This metal was impossibly strong. He had melted reinforced steel with those blasts.

"He...he has a plan."

"How are you even communicating with him?" asked Lantern

"Just...just do it Ok!" Flash yelled.

Everyone that could shared a look that seemed to say, here we go...

Right at that moment the android exploded a bubble of energy outwards, knocking all the heroes away.

It flew off at top speed towards Batman's plane.

Wonder Woman,Superman, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Captain Atom were hot on its heels.

"Why is it doing that?!" asked Flash.

"It can copy abilities and adapt to battle tactics just by watching. You probably shouldn't have spelled out the plan quite so loudly." Black Canary said.

"Oh." Flash said dejectedly.

"Hey, it wasn't your fault. There was no other way. We'll just have to wait and see." She said as she stood beside him. She was looking quite disheveled, Flash could see that underneath the dirt and grime she was actually quite attractive. The leather bodysuit certainly didn't hurt. He observed all this in the space of a nanosecond.

Meanwhile the flying superheroes tackled the android into the ground much like NFL players taking down the man with the ball. It shrugged them all off with frightening ease.

"All right! That's it, no more Mr Nice Guy!" Superman bellowed.

He grasped the android by the legs and smashed it into the ground with a devastating display of brute strength. Several cars in the vicinity were raised several feet in the air and the resultant tremor was felt as far as the beaches of Miami.

But even this wasn't enough to stop the android. It took the blow in its stride, rising with a badly twisted waist and mangled legs that were repairing themselves at an alarming rate.

Hawkman hacked at the androids weakened waist and limbs, and he was joined by Wonder Woman. Both got a little carried away but the android continued crawling out of the incredibly deep crater.

"Lantern,secure him! Now!" Wonder Woman shouted as she and Hawkman were repulsed by twin blasts of energy.

He summoned everything he had left, conjuring up a massive vice to pin the android in place.

"Can you hold him?" Captain Atom asked.

In the distance they could all see Batman clambering onto the top of the plane as casually as if he was climbing the stairs to a kiddy slide and not several hundred feet above the ground.

If he fell all that would be left was a stain.

"I think so..." Lantern said. His arm began shaking. "No!" he shouted as the android shattered the construct.

"I...I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough to hold him. He's going to kill that guy." He said to Diana with a note of shame in his voice.

"No. Don't apologise. I have something that will hold even this creature." She whipped the lasso from her waist and swiftly twirled a restraining loop, then she spun the rope over her head until it got longer and longer. And longer. Then she loosed it. It seemed to fall forever. The android was already closing the distance. It seemed like the rope wouldn't reach it in time.

Everyone held their breath.

It was no exaggeration to say that the whole country was watching. Every news station worth their salt had pitched tent outside the Police cordon. A few had snuck in with Lois. But none had the bravery, or stupidity depending on how one looked at it, to stand as close to fight as she did.

Jimmy didn't dare blink. With one hand,without taking his eyes off of the sight or moving the shoulder mounted camera, he raised the camera around his neck, flicked the lens cover off and took several shots.

The lasso fell over the androids shoulders. She pulled back hard, tightening the noose and pinning the androids arms together and stopping its advance.

Still no one relaxed.

It wasn't over yet.

Now it was all on Batman.

Batman hefted the large cannon onto his shoulder.

It was a nanite disruptor.

In theory it worked by negating all residual magnetic energy generated by nanites into the cannon, which then allowed it to absorb the energy and use it as a power source to destabilise even more nanites.
It was a way of making it work independently.

An external power source would have needed increasingly greater levels of energy to power it.
S.T.A.R Labs scientists had developed it to test the structural strength of nanobot exo-suits for military use. The power suit project had been shelved because it was deemed to expensive to equip even a small unit of elite soldiers.

Lex was a billionaire, but even he wasn't rich enough to fund this project all by himself, covertly.
Much of the information was in the hands of the government.
That meant someone very high up, either stars on a collar or buttons on a suit-likely both-had authorized and helped fund this project.

But he would look into that later.

His AI system also worked with nanotechnology, although not the self-repairing power adapting type. Waynetech chips worked with integrated circuit microchips. He mass produced them, so he needed a way to make the processors for the AI chips smaller, cheaper, and faster. Well, maybe not cheaper. Money wasn't a problem. But they made everything easier.

If this thing worked according to plan, he would basically fry the AI and the nanites in the metal at the same time.

Then it would be a sitting duck.

He hated guns.

He never used them.

Never learned how to use them on principle.

The very thought of them made his skin crawl.
They were clumsy weapons. Cowards weapons. His aim was superb. Throwing a pointed weapon in a curved arc was surely harder than squeezing something that fired a metal projectile in a straight line.

Except this wasn't a gun. But it worked a lot like one.

Just point and shoot, he thought. How hard can it be?

He squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

He squeezed again.

Still nothing.

"Oh you've got to be-"

"Try squeezing the trigger and holding it down." Said Flash on the commlink.

Batman did as he was told. The cannon charged up with a sound like a motor picking up speed.

The Android was straining against the lasso, pulling Wonder Woman forward.

A powerful blue surge of energy shot out of the cannon's mouth, pushing him back a little with its force. The beam struck the android square in the chest. He kept squeezing. The android danced bizarrely for a few seconds as its circuitry was overloaded with the surge of energy, then it stooped over and plummeted towards the ground. He released the trigger and the energy beam cut off immediately.

It smashed into the ground, forming a hollow crater, and lay still.

It had hardly hit the ground before Wonder Woman and Hawkman descended upon it with righteous rage. They hacked, ripped and sliced at the android like crazed butchers.

Captain Atom, Superman and Green Lantern joined in, blasting the metal with everything they had.

Lantern didn't even bother with constructs, just strong beams of green energy. Within a few seconds it was nothing but blackened hunks of smoking metal.

Wonder Woman raised its severed, charred head and roared triumphantly.

"I claim this trophy for Themyscira!"

"She knows she'll have to give that up to S.T.A.R Labs right?" Flash said to Black Canary.

"You really think anyone is going to tell her that?" She replied.

Lantern collapsed onto a giant green pillow below.

"May we never,ever have to do something like that again! God, I don't think I can even fly!"

Superman and Captain Atom landed beside Hawkman and Wonder Woman.

"It's really over. After all those hours. Just like that." Superman said with disbelief.

"I'd say its just getting started." Hawkman said as he eyed the sea of reporters clambering over the totally wrecked environment to get closer to them.

It was perhaps the most unnerving sight any of them had seen all day.

Everyone turned as they heard the plane engines.

The jet was leaving.

Fast.

"That guy has the right idea." Captain Atom said with a sly grin.

"Was that the Batman?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Yes it was." said Flash.

"Why did he leave?"

"He's not exactly like the rest of us. He operates by a different set of rules."

"You sound like you admire him." Green Lantern said.

"I do."

"Fanboy." Lantern coughed behind his fist.

"Whatever Lantern. You owe me 500 bucks."

A/N: Sorry this took so long. Batman didn't interact with them, yes. I know a lot of people wanted to see that. But I honestly believe he would just get the job done then get the hell out of there. If there is no real need to hang around or interact, he won't. Also press. Batman doesn't do photo-ops and interviews.
But the Trinity will meet. The story isn't over yet. Also, Nth metal has mystical properties, hence the low-level magic at play.

Read and Review.